Vancouver gymnast wins her first international title

With a soaring effort performing a vault that few gymnasts attempt, Jordan Chiles launched herself to the most significant result of her career.

On March 19 in Jesolo, Italy, the Prairie High School freshman won the all-around title in the junior competition at the City of Jesolo Trophy meet. It was her first international title in her third international meet as a member of the United States junior national team.

“My coaches have said this will really help me having this meet to remember when I compete in the future,” Chiles said.

She was briefly back at Naydenov Gymnastics last week before heading to another national team camp Wednesday through Monday at the USA Gymnastics training center near Houston.

Chiles is too young to compete for a spot in the Rio Olympics this year. She turns 15 on April 15 and in 2017 will be eligible to start competing at the senior level.

Because this is an Olympic year, the main focus for USA Gymnastics is its senior gymnasts. The United States is not sending a junior team to the Pacific Rim Gymnastics Champiionships, which will take place April 8-10 in Everett, so Chiles will not be competing there.

Her performance in Italy came on the heels of competing in Montreal, where she won the vault to help the United States to the Junior Cup team gold at the Gymnix International Meet.

The March 5 meet in Montreal was the first time she performed her vault, known as an Amanar, in a major competition.

“We knew she could do the vault, but would she do it under pressure, when judges and everybody’s watching? And she did. I’m so excited,” said Erica Bakacs, who coaches Chiles at Naydenov Gymnastics.

According to Bakacs, only five or six gymnasts in the world perform the amanar vault because of its difficulty. She said that Chiles has the leg strength needed to complete the 2 1/2-twist maneuver.

“It’s a blind landing, so you can’t see anything when you’re landing,” Chiles said. “That’s why it’s harder to do. You need a lot of power to do it.”

The 15.70 she scored with her vault in Italy set the table for her all-around victory. It was the first of the four events Chiles performed, giving her a quick lead of more than one point and a nice confidence boost.